"People who do math don't have credit card debt."

[Xist]

How many people use credit cards correctly?

"I made $5,000 from credit card rewards last year!"
"How much did you pay in interest?"
"Why?"

I usually agree with Dave Ramsey. When I disagree I do not say his advice is bad, just that it could be better. I will pay off my debts my way, faster, and save money compared to the debt snowball, but not by a huge margin.

He constantly preaches to cancel credit cards and never use them again. Credit rewards help some people. Others fall into a trap. I could not maintain work in 2007 and could not pay my credit cards. I joined the Army in 2008 and quickly paid off my credit cards, which the banks had already closed, but then I could not find anyone that would rent me a car without a credit card. Ramsey insists you can find one, but that was not my experience several years ago.

Ramsey says that you can get along just fine with no or bad credit, it will just be less convenient, and sometimes more expensive.

Some people need that. I do not think I do.

Denial!

Intervention!

Fish are friends, not food!

Here are more examples of his methods backfiring: https://www.dailyworth.com/posts/430...it-score-price

He gives safe advice that probably works for 95% of people.

I wonder if anyone else gives advice that consistently helpful.

Deviate at your own expense.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Xist

"I made $5,000 from credit card rewards last year!"
"How much did you pay in interest?"

Nothing, though I made closer to $500 than $5000. Again, it's really simple: don't buy stuff you wouldn't be willing to pay cash for, and pay the balance in full every month - or whenever the 0% interest period ends :-)

[freebeard]

This thread showed up on the subforum main page for me only today. I find it interesting from a dis-interested point of view. I haven't had a credit/debit card since my wife left in 1975. I do have a debit card from Goodwill because they don't give out cash refunds.

Imagine me throwing nickels at you!

Please! I hoard nickels. They are the last coin that hasn't been debased (75% copper, 25% nickel). An ammo can full of rolled nickels is worth $40, if the currency gets debased then that becomes $400.

Fish are friends, not food!

I am soooo glad I found the thread.

[Xist]

Dave Ramsey gives statistics on people spending more due to cash rewards and not paying off their balances like they plan to. Sure, it will work for some people, but if you spend 1% more, or leave a small balance at the end of the month and need to pay interest, there goes the benefit.

[wdb]

Let's see: 29% interest on the balance, 1% cash back.

Yep. People don't do math.

[oil pan 4]

I let mine get up there for a month. Bought a 29cc redmax contractor grade weed eater because I kept finding barbed wire, baling wire, fence posts, cinder blocks, concrete rubble, car parts, cast iron pipe, rebar and a whole pile of other junk with my push lawn mower and kept bending blades. I figured I better get a trimmer before I destroy my push lawn mower or my riding lawn mower and I was not going to buy some weak pos junk from lowes.
And a 60cc echo chain saw after big dried out dead trees broke my electric saw. And some other stuff for the new house. I wanted the 67cc echo saw but they didn't have it. Plus I bought the part to fix my electric saw plus 2 spares.
By next month I should be able to click "pay current ballance" every time I make a payment.
If not I will dig some cash out of my safe deposit box since it's earning 0% and pay stuff off.

[freebeard]

Yep. People don't do math.

People don't do infosec.

Hand a card to a waiter and they disappear with all your routing information to your assets vs scan a QR code to transfer Satoshi. When one Bitcoin reaches $10K, a Satoshi will be worth one dime. Of course the miners will be a significant contributor to
Anthropogenic Global Warming — ASICs are already dieing in the heat.

[Natalya]

Credit card.. constantly paying it off every month, down to 0, have never (in 8 years of having it) had to pay a % on a balance left over from the previous month.

I used to use a debit card exclusively, but after the Target hack a friend of mine advised me to switch to the credit card so that if that ever happened again it'd just be CC info they stole not debit info. I also still use cash a lot unlike most people who went straight to plastic.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Xist

Dave Ramsey gives statistics on people spending more due to cash rewards and not paying off their balances like they plan to.

Of course it won't work if you don't do it. Duh!

[freebeard]

Morality is asking yourself what society would be like if everyone did it.

So if everyone used credit card in a way that cost 0% of everything, and accrued added value, how would the surveillance of everyone's financial activity be subsidized? I don't get that.